The government is not optimistic. Guest of the show “We don’t stop the eco” on France Inter this Saturday morning, the Minister of Industry Marc Ferracci can only share this feeling. “It is true that there are a certain number of sectors which are in a worrying situation,” he notes.
The automotive sector is particularly affected, with difficulties in companies like Valeo and Forvia. Michelin, the French tire giant, announced on Tuesday the upcoming closure of its Cholet (Maine-et-Loire) and Vannes (Morbihan) sites, which employ 1,254 employees. But the crisis also extends to other sectors, such as chemicals or mass distribution, with Auchan stores also having announced a social plan this week.
Search for European solutions
“There will probably be announcements of site closures in the coming weeks and months,” lamented Marc Ferracci at France Inter. This will be counted in thousands of jobs. » Nevertheless, he wanted to emphasize the solutions being studied to respond to this crisis. Among the measures mentioned, he calls for better governance of public aid, as well as recovery measures at the European level: “an ecological bonus on a European scale” or a “common European loan” to finance “support mechanisms » to the sector. “From the first half of 2025, the European Commission has said that it will prioritize a “clean industrial act”, that is to say European legislation on clean industry. »
The minister himself visited the Michelin factory this week. He was booed by the employees there. He explains that he is working on a monitoring committee so that “Michelin’s commitments on this issue [soient] held.” The unions, for their part, have called for an indefinite strike since the announcement of the social plan.
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